TRUST IN TOP COURT FALTERS AFTER ROE RULING
Survey shows 57% think decision was based on politics
For most of her life, Marshelle Barwise viewed the U.S. Supreme Court as soberly dedicated to protecting the rights of all Americans, especially for those who aren’t White men.
Then the court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Although Barwise personally opposes abortion, she disagreed with the rolling back of the nationwide right to an abortion and saw it as yet another example of how American democracy is broken.
“There’s so much divisiveness even within our own government, how can we trust it? Everything is so divisive,” said Barwise, 37, a new mom who works in financial sales and considers herself politically independent.
For years, she has dutifully voted, believing in a democratic system that’s supposed to represent everyone. Yet, she said, it seems as if a powerful few are making decisions that don’t match what a majority wants — or are failing to take any action at all.
“We have all gone through where we’ve heard people say all the right things, and then they get in a position of power, and they do everything opposite — or a segment, a small portion, just enough to appease or hopefully
get re-elected,” she said.
With Congress gridlocked and presidents facing challenges when they act on their own, the Supreme Court — historically the most apolitical branch of government — has seemingly become the one most capable of quickly reshaping society.
Across the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, many people who oppose the abortion decision said they didn’t expect Roe to fall because it had been in place for nearly five decades and, while controversial, had woven itself into American society. It was considered settled law, so its sudden demise was unsettling for many — and made them worry about what could follow.
The ruling catapults abortion into a top issue in all three states, where races are under way for governor and U.S. Senate.
While the court is supposed to focus on legal reasoning,
not public opinion, the June 24 ruling does not match the views of most Americans. Fifty-six percent of adults opposed overturning Roe, according to a recent Marist College poll conducted with NPR and PBS NewsHour after the court issued its decision. Of those polled, 57 percent said they think the court’s decision was mostly based on politics, while 36 percent said they considered it mostly based on the law.
“They’re supposed to be unbiased. They’re supposed to look at the law as it is, instead of what political interests might have in mind,” said Timothy Oxley Jr., 31, a statistical programming analyst from Columbia, S.C., who was visiting Atlanta last week. “They’re there to work for the people, not their own interests. And I feel like that’s what they’re doing more than anything these days.”
One year ago, 60 percent of adults approved of the job the Supreme Court was doing, according to a survey by Marquette University Law School. There was little difference between the views of Republicans and Democrats.
By May — soon after a draft of the Dodds v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization opinion leaked — approval of the court had dropped by 16 points, to 44 percent, according to a follow-up survey by Marquette. That poll showed a dramatic partisan split, with 71 percent of Republicans approving but 28 percent of Democrats doing the same.
Alfredo Gutiérrez, a onetime Democratic state Senate majority leader in Arizona, has fought for civil rights, most recently on behalf of undocumented immigrants, nearly all his 77 years.
Along the way, Gutiérrez revered the Supreme Court for its tradition of expanding rights even as his admiration gave way to cynicism about the confirmation process.
Now, after the abortion ruling, he sees the court as a political instrument.
“At every step along the way, it has been a step of inclusion, it has been a step of bringing people into the circle to determine the future of this country,” he said. “And it has been a step of extending rights ... to make equality the most common thread of our being as a country. And that’s why the court has, until now, remained the most admired, the most respected entity in all of governance in this country. And that’s what they destroyed.”